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Originally Posted by tasdrouille
You are right. I totally forgot about the other members of the equation. Thanks for setting the record straight! The Cd variation with distance is interesting nonetheless.
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Yes, it is quite a fascinating graph indeed, especially for the lead vehicle.
To be honest, I have second thoughts about what I have written, which is true in a strict mathematical sense but might not be what the author intended. The two reasons why my interpretation might have been wrong are:
- It would mean that that in addition to measuring drag on the drafting car model (in the tunnel), the author has also measured the airspeed. (At which point in space? It's quite an important decision!)
- It would mean that the graph is not very useful to the reader, since the air speed is unknown (yet both varying highly and of very high influence).
So, the author might have just taken the airspeed as "free stream speed" (ie, same for both cars) and I might have been over-zealous here ;-)
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Doesn't it depend if you are also driving an aerocivic?
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Not really. A very streamlined leader car would leave small wake turbulence. The air behind it would have almost no velocity relative to the ground, thus would not be very interesting to drive into, whichever car you are driving.
As a drafter, I'd wish to have a very streamlined car and an awfully blunt leader.
As a leader, I'd just wish to have a drafter whose nose is at the same height as my tail.